Tigre de montagne
, , , , , |Reported = 1950 (publication; retrospectively) 1955 (publication) |Researchers = • Lucien Blancou • Bernard Heuvelmans • Christian Le Noël}} The tigre de montagne (French: "mountain tiger") is a cryptid felid reported mainly from the mountainous regions of the , , and , described as a massive red-furred cat with long fangs. Cryptozoologists speculate it may be a living sabre-toothed cat, with which it has sometimes been identified by eyewitnesses. Etymology The name "tigre de montagne" is given to both the original Ennedi cryptid and the coq-djingé by the French residents of Chad and the Central African Republic. The local name for the Ennedi cryptid is unknown. Cryptids classified as tigres de montagne *Coq-djingé ( ) *Gassingrâm ( ) *Hadjel ( ) *Imatong tiger ( ) *Nisi or noso ( ) *Vassoko ( ) A local informant of Paul Cazard also claimed that a gigantic "cave lion" existed in , which Bernard Heuvelmans speculated could be another population of tigres de montagne, or simply a legend inspired by the real cryptids to the east. Description in Guide des Animaux Cachés (2009).]] The tigre de montagne is said to be larger than a lion (perhaps up to a metre and a half at the withers, or the size of a horse or a donkey) and has red or reddish-brown fur, usually with vertical white stripes. The Yulu people also describe a melanistic variety. It has long, protruding teeth which extend past its lips (which are not described in the gassingrâm), very long hair on its legs and paws, and is either tailless or has a very short, bushy, hyena-like tail. The gassingrâm and vassoko are additionally said to have eyes that glow like lamps or even a lighthouse during the night; the vassoko is said to have small, dog-like ears; and the hadjel is described as being maned. It lives in caves in relatively dry, mountainous regions, and is widely considered to be nocturnal. A predatory animal, it is apparently extremely strong, and is capable of effortlessly picking up and carrying off prey as large as an antelope, sometimes hoisting the prey onto its own back: Bernard Heuvelmans also theorises that they are capable of killing adult elephants, something lions rarely do.The Central African Republic has been the source of uncommon reports of "lions" killing adult elephants, even in regions where lions are not known to live. In one incident, the perpetrator was named as a mourou-ngou, but given that the region was hilly and dry, Heuvelmans feels that a tigre de montagne is the more likely culprit. It also has a terrific roar, sometimes likened to the bellowing of an elephant. The hadjel is said to mainly take small prey because the great size of its teeth makes it painful for it to open its mouth, and is considered by the Hadjeray people to be less dangerous than a lion because of this. Similarly, the nisi is reputed to kill but not eat animals such as goats and chickens, suggesting to Heuvelmans that it may lap up their blood. According to some informants, the vassoko is followed around by clouds of butterflies. The long hair on the vassoko's legs and paws, or the hair of its bushy tail, supposedly eradicates any tracks it leaves, but the tracks of the South Sudanese Imatong tiger were once found. These prints are allegedly as long as those of a boy, but clawed, and show that the animal is plantigrade. The gassingrâm was also said to leave tracks larger than those of a lion. Tigres de montagne are said to inhabit: * : Birao, the Massif des Bongos or Bongo Massif, and Ouanda Djallé * : the Ennedi Plateau, the Tibesti Mountains, the Guera Massif, "and other mountainous areas" * : Imatong Mountains Sightings Undated Sometime before 1950, some workers toiling in the Imatong Mountains in what is now reported to J. K. Jackson that they had seen a creature unknown to them: "a big animal, bigger than a lion and very great, his head was big, with a pointed muzzle and a black mouth, armed with long canines; his general color is brown, with on the flanks vertical stripes of a yellowish-white".Jackson, J. K., "Animal Life in the Imatong Mountains" Sudan Wild Life and Sport (December 1950) Jackson, who identified the animal as a Nandi bear, passed on the description to the Deputy Inspector of Hunts at Torit, a Major Anderson, who told Jackson that, like most "Nandi bears," it was probably an abberant spotted hyena. Jackson, who did not believe that a large unknown carnivore could exist there, agreed, but the description given by the workers was identical to that of the tigre de montagne of Chad. At least two natives of Birao, one of whom was a poacher, claimed in 1960 to have encountered a vassoko at some point. One of M. H. R. Maudry's European interpreters also saw a feline he could not identify about fifty kilometres from Birao in around 1940. 1937 In 1937, Lucien Blancou was told by a village chief of Ouanda Djallé that a gassingrâm had recently been haunting the district. It was occasionally but rarely seen in the daytime, carrying off its prey to caves in the mountains. circa 1940 In 1970, when Christian Le Noël showed his trackers images of various living and extinct cats, the trackers unhesitatingly selected the image of Smilodon as the tigre de montagne, then recounted to him a notable sighting which had occured around thirty years earlier: 1969 Whilst approaching a large cavern in Ouanda-Djallé alongside an elderly native game tracker, Christian Le Noël heard a "terrible roar" which he could not identify coming from within the cavern. His tracker identified the call as that of a tigre de montagne, and refused to go any closer to the cavern. Theories in Guide des Animaux Cachés (2009).]] When Christian Le Noël showed his Yulu trackers colour drawings of felines including tigers, ocelots, cheetahs, snow leopards, cougars, and a prehistoric Smilodon, the trackers immediately pointed to the Smilodon as "their" mountain tiger. Le Noël notes that the trackers "cannot confuse two types of big cats, even if they have similar characteristics"; would have no way of knowing of the existence of a supposedly extinct animal like Smilodon; and points out that there would be no reason to describe a purely mythical animal as being occasionally melanistic. Philippe Coudray also notes that a short tail is a characteristic of sabre-toothed cats. Bernard Heuvelmans suggests that a species of sabre-toothed cat could have adapted to a nocturnal life in the mountains in order to avoid competition with lions. In this theory, the tigre de montagne carries its larger prey, such as antelopes and warthogs, into the mountains in order to escape from scavengers, as its large teeth would make it a slow eater (a fact explicitly confirmed by eyewitness descriptions of the hadjel); and its sabre teeth would be used to dig up animals such as rodents, hares, porcupines, lizards, snakes, and large insects. These smaller animals would make up the bulk of its diet, and it would often lap up the blood of its prey instead of eating their flesh, due to the size of its teeth. Such a lifestyle would make it a sort of evolutionary counterpart to water lions, which Heuvelmans theorised are sabre-toothed cats which became adapted to an aquatic habitat in order to avoid competition with other predators, and which could use their fangs to dig up shellfish. Just as the water lion would fill the niche of an animal like the jaguar, the tigre de montagne, Heuvelmans suggests, would fill the ecological niche left empty by the absence of bears in Africa. Similar cryptids The southern range of the tigre de montagne overlaps with the northern range of the amphibious water lions, which are also speculated to be living sabre-toothed cats. They have often been described as the same cryptid, but would have radically different lifestyles and ecologies. Lucien Blancou was the first to suggest that the tigre de montagne was the same animal as the mourou-ngou and the dilali (i.e. a water lion), but Bernard Heuvelmans rejected this due to the reported differences in habitat and behaviour. The wanjilanko, a gigantic striped cat with long fangs reported from 's Casamance Forest, is also classed as a tigre de montagne by authors including George Eberhart. Other possible living sabre-toothed cats include the amphibious water tigers and tigre dantero of South America - an apparent case of convergent evolution with the African water lions and tigres de montagne - and the guoshanhuang of . Further cryptozoological reading Do you think the exists? If so, what do you think the is? Myth, folklore, hoax, or otherwise made-up Mistaken identity Living sabre-toothed cat Unknown cat *Heuvelmans, Bernard & Rivera, Jean-Luc & Barloy, Jean-Jacques (2007) Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique, Les Editions de l'Oeil du Sphinx, ISBN 978-2914405430 Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:Central African Republic Category:Chad Category:Ethiopia Category:Mali Category:South Sudan Category:Sudan Category:Uganda Category:Felids Category:Tigres de montagne Category:Theory: Living fossil - Sabre toothed cat Category:Featured Category:No recent sightings Category:1937 Category:1940 Category:1969